Amidst ongoing problems with HGVs hitting cyclists in London, road safety campaign SteerSafe has said that fitting 360 degree cameras to HGVs will provide a ‘quicker and more immediate solution’ to driver blind spots than redesigning lorry cabs.

Loughborough University examined driver fields of view on behalf of Transport for London last year. The university recommended that a new standard should be introduced to set minimum fields of view through windows and doors. The founder of SteerSafe Chris Hanson-Abbott OBE however, has said that redesigning lorry cabs will ‘cost a fortune’ and could take many years to achieve.

“Why wait when there is a perfectly good solution available right now?” said Hanson-Abbott. “More lives will be lost needlessly.

“Bird’s-eye view technology is already tried, tested and in service which gives drivers a continuous bird’s-eye view of a wide footprint all-round the vehicle – 360 degree camera systems eliminate all blind spots on a single monitor image.

“This yields massive relief from driver information overloads of multi-image systems via mirrors or monitors, relief from cab re-designs, and relief from more lives lost in the meantime.”

As with most electronics systems cameras are not guaranteed to work 100% of the time, though could resolve the issue of HGV drivers not seeing other road users in their bland spots. 360 degree camera systems do not cost as much as a fully redesigned cab. There are issues however about whether the Highway Code would permit someone to be looking at a screen instead of the road around them… SteerSafe ‘s idea may be a way forward in the short term.

 
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